Why these four Italian paintings?

In the United States November 30th, 2015 a Manhattan man of Hebrew and African descent filed a lawsuit "to get white (Aryan) Jesus art taken down" from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC, newspapers report. The paintings subject to the lawsuit are four Italian masterpieces: 1. “The Holy Family with Angels” by Sebastiano Ricci, 2.“The Resurrection” by Perugino, 3. “The Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes” by Jacopo Tintoretto and 4. “The Crucifixion” by Francesco Granacci. These paintings are collectively related as“Racist Artworks”. The consequence of such a view was the man suffering from 'personal stress'. The reason is that Jesus is not faithful to his original race features, "black hair like wool and skin of bronze color". On the contrary, Jesus is painted as a blond-haired man.

The question is: why these Italian Renaissance paintings? After all, the Metropolitan Museum of Art is full of Italian religious paintings, which depict Christ as a white man. Actually, Christ is painted as a white man in Flemish, Spanish, German and French art. Apparently, there's nothing different about them from the other religious paintings in the museum. What do these particular paintings have in common?

Important notice: numbers refer to the original list of the Italian works of art that were mentioned in the man's complaint.

2.“The Resurrection” by Perugino (Italian, Città della Pieve, active by 1469–died 1523 Fontignano), 1502, tempera on wood, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

3. “The Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes” by Jacopo Tintoretto  (Jacopo Robusti) (Italian, Venice 1519–1594 Venice), oil on canvas, circa 1545-1550, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

4. “The Crucifixion” by Francesco Granacci (Francesco di Andrea di Marco) (Italian, Villamagna 1469–1543 Florence), tempera and gold on wood, circa 1510, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York 

It looks like the common feature in the above Italian Renaissance paintings confirms Christ as a blond-haired white man. In addition to the three Italian Renaissance paintings by Perugino, Tintoretto, and Granacci, the fourth painting is a Baroque painting of a lovely Baby Jesus by Sebastiano Ricci. Here Baby Jesus has curly blond hair. That's what we see when we think of angels in Italy: a chubby baby with blond hair. 

1. “The Holy Family with Angels” by Sebastiano Ricci (Italian, Belluno 1659–1734 Venice), circa 1700, oil on canvas, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Regarding the rest of the paintings, for sure it was in use in the Italian Renaissance to depict people with blond hair as it was a conventional feature for nobility. Indeed in real life noblewomen dyed their hair blond, which was a status symbol for the aristocracy. The only woman thought out with brown hair in paintings is the Virgin Mary. She is rarely blond-haired.

Another important piece of information is that these paintings are located in sections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art that are dedicated to Italian Art. The painting by Sebastiano Ricci is on view in Gallery 619 called 'Venetian View Painting' and part of the general collection of 'European Paintings' to which the rest of the paintings belong, respectively: Perugino (Gallery 603:
Filippo Lippi to Botticelli), Tintoretto (Gallery 607: Venetian Sixteenth-century Painting), and Granacci (Gallery 609: Central Italian Painting of the High Renaissance).

For more information about the above paintings, visit The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

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What's the matter with color?

 Carlo Crivelli, Virgin Mary with Child, circa 1480, 

 Pinacoteca Civica Francesco Podesti, Ancona

I am very interested in knowing how the issue about the alleged whitewashed paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art will be ending up. I am curious to know how long the trial at the Manhattan Supreme Court will take to get settled. My interest comes from the fact that the four works of art judged as stressful for the American man's sensibility are Italian Renaissance paintings by famous Italian artists. Before any comment could come to my mind, the first thing I did was look for the plaintiff on Facebook and send him a message with a special invitation. A few days later I sent an email to the Met sharing with them the reason why I had gotten in touch with the plaintiff. 

Anyway, this issue brought back to my mind a thought I developed by seeing Italian Renaissance paintings. My thought was reinforced by the Metropolitan Museum spokeswoman Elyse Topalian's statement. She said: “When they were painted, it was typical for artists to depict subjects with the same identity as the local audience. This phenomenon occurs in many other cultures, as well.” 

What I think is that important families in the Renaissance period had their features painted as Jesus Christ, the Virgin Mary, and other saints at least for a couple of reasons: 1. They wanted to be remembered as eternal. It's the game of eternity that keeps all of us out of the picture if we take paintings by the word. Indeed we can refer to Italian Renaissance art with the same terms of communication as most of the time paintings are speaking through rhetorical figures: artists depict a subject expressing something else through metaphors, allegories, and other figures of speech. One of the latest rhetorical figures I have discovered in Italian Renaissance paintings is the so-called 'prolepsis': fruits that tell us about Baby Jesus' destiny as the cucumber represents the resurrection of Jesus. 2. By having themselves painted as religious characters, aristocrats in the Renaissance were keeping them safe from being judged or attacked. They could have these paintings shown in churches and public buildings without arousing jealousy and therefore enemies. The reason for doing this is also that in order not to be attacked we have to go from the general to the individual rather than vice-versa.

I would be interested in finding essays about this subject.  Something scientific about this matter would be highly supportive of this thesis. 

On a more practical level and going back to the American gentleman's legal case against the Metropolitan Museum of Art, I think that one has to take into consideration that the four Italian Renaissance paintings subject to attack belong to our past. They are part of a different period of time than the current one. Therefore the issue is totally anachronistic. Secondly, there is no way we can contrast this attack as there are no works of art belonging to the gentleman's cultural heritage with similar features and about which we could say the same thing. Third but not less important, a work of art's copyright expires if older than 100 years. Therefore the four works of art that the plaintiff wants the Metropolitan Museum of Art to be taken down from their walls have become fully part of our common cultural heritage and deserve to be accepted, if only by way of seniority. 

                                                                    

(to be continued)

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Two Special Italian Renaissance Parents

Raphael's home is nowadays a museum. 

'Urbino: I'd love to see...' is the name of the Facebook event I created a couple of weeks ago to share with the Friends of Cama my upcoming trip to Urbino. I was about to visit Urbino last December for the first time in my life. So I asked my Facebook friends what they wanted to know about Urbino or what they had to recommend that they had liked in Urbino.

My Facebook friends responded with lots of enthusiasm as always. I took notes of my friends' questions and suggestions. I did a small research on the web about a few things regarding some works of art I wanted to see. Then I contacted the local information office about museum tickets. It is no longer possible to enter all museums with one ticket. Admissions to places of interest would have been all separate tickets.

So on Sunday, December 20th I headed to Urbino full of energy to walk around town and visit places. What I noticed is that the town is very well preserved. Downtown Urbino is a Unesco site since 1998. Downtown Urbino is embraced by the Ducal Palace and is also known indeed as 'the town shaped like a palace'. The feeling is like being in the Medieval and Renaissance era.

The plaque dedicated to Raphael on his home in Urbino 

On many downtown residences, plaques are remembering famous people who were born in Urbino, among which the most important of all is Italian Renaissance artist Raphael (1483-1520). Raphael's home was on my list of places to visit in order to answer a specific question coming from a Japanese friend of mine. I wanted to come back from Urbino fulfilling my friend's curiosity.

Upon my arrival, I felt immediately loved. The first place I entered was the church of St. Catherine of Alexandria. Nuns were entering from the opposite doors for their daily hymns and they invited me to sing with them. They handed me their prayers book and I felt honored to participate. What a beautiful welcoming to Urbino. At the end of the prayers, I left the church of St. Catherine of Alexandria and continued on my left. I arrived at the Ducal Palace entrance to the Galleria Nazionale Delle Marche. I passed by several universities, among which the university for foreign languages, as Urbino, is also well known as a university town. However, I left the visit to the Galleria Nazionale Delle Marche as my last visit on the way back to the car.

Raphael, St. Catherine of Alexandria, 1500-1503 Galleria Nazionale Delle Marche,
Ducal Place, Urbino 

This is the summary of the places I visited in order of appearance: 1. Church of St. Catherine of Alexandria 2. Oratorio di San Giovanni 3. Oratorio di San Giuseppe 4. Church of St. Francis 5. Raphael's monument 6. National Art Gallery at the Ducal Palace 7. Cathedral ---> it took me about 6 hours total including a stop at a local restaurant making exquisite 'Crescia', the stuffed local thin and crunchy bread whose tradition goes back to the 15th century.

But...the most important place where I could get some pieces of information for my friend from Japan is missing from my list. It's Raphael's home. Indeed Raphel's home is closed to visitors on Sunday afternoon. It's open 10:00am-1pm only on Sundays. What a disappointment when I found this out. I would never think of such an important place closed on Sunday. However, not everything was lost. At the end of the street where Raphael's home is located up on the hill, I could admire the beautiful monument that was dedicated to Raphael and celebrate the artist's 400th birth anniversary. The Latin writing on three of the monument's sides says Virtuti Post Fata (tr. to excellence after death). Each word is written separately on each side. 

URBINO- Raphael's monument in the gardens overlooking Via Raffaello,
where Raphael's home is located. 

But this is not exactly what made it up for the missed visit to Raphael's home. I wish to share with you the unique discovery that opened up my heart and enriched my visit to Urbino. The last place I visited before meaning to go to Raphael's home is the church of St. Francis. I entered the church just because of the name and inside I found out that Raphael's parents were buried there. So I started searching for the tomb's stone tile. No way I could find it. There were all sorts of noble personalities buried in the church in a couple of rows from the altar to the main entrance door. Kind of hard to read the stone tiles sometimes as benches have been placed over them. However, if I could not read the persons' names I could see a noble family crest. Therefore it was not Raphael's parents. 

I didn't give up and in the end, when checking the horizontal area along with the three entrance doors, almost abandoning my hopes as a large nativity was covering most of the floor, I found out that I had stepped into the tomb when entering the church. Indeed Raphael's parents' tomb is located right at the left entrance of St. Francis church. Raphael's parents were there! 

It was such a moving moment. What an honor for them. What a beautiful homage to Raphael. So I will have to drive to Urbino again to complete my research but I will make sure to pay a visit to Raphael's parents in the church of st. Francis first. That's actually where my next visit to Urbino will start to make sure I won't miss my visit to Raphael's home.  

Joannis Sanctis and Magliae Ciarlae were Raphael's parents. They are buried in the church of St. Francis located near their family home on Via Raffaello, originally Urbino's arts &crafts neighborhood.

Find out more about this post's story on the Facebook event's link ---> stay tuned for my next trip to Urbino with a special tour companion!  

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Cake is for CAMA

Etruscan winged horses 

The Cake is for CAMA is the name of the event I created on Facebook about a week ago about my trip to C towns in my area. I had prepared my visit in advance as my purpose was to tour five C towns in one day. However this past Saturday I only made it to Chiusi and Cetona. The five C towns are: Chiusi, Cetona, Città della Pieve, Corciano and Cortona.  So I am dedicating some extra time to completing my visit as planned. So far I have added Corciano to the list. So I am down to three towns out of five. I must say that the trip is getting more and more interesting. Yesterday in Corciano I visited their archaeological museum that was founded in 2009 based on the findings of Etruscan tombs in the area. Indeed I am going to visit the related necropolis one of these afternoons. I have called the family that has the keys to the place and they said they will open the necropolis after 4:00pm for me. The necropolis area is called 'Strozzacapponi'. Knowing that there is an Etruscan necropolis in Strozzacapponi (literally tr. capons' strangler) was an amazing discovery, as I go by this area every time I drive from Piegaro, where I live, to Perugia. What's more interesting is that the family that has the keys to the necropolis owns the supermarket that was built there. In fact, the necropolis was found when excavating for building the supermarket. Isn't that amazing? The necropolis was totally found by accident. From what I can see what these C towns have in common is definitely their Etruscan heritage. In fact, I will be heading to Cortona next to visit their Etruscan museum. Città della Pieve is the closest C town to where I live and I want to go there to see the place where recently new Etruscan tombs were discovered. The place is called San Donnino Poggiovalle.

Chiusi was the first C town that I visited at my event. Additionally, I drove to Chiusi the Sunday prior to my visit. Just in case there was not enough time the day I planned to be in Chiusi to visit their Etruscan tombs. Tombs are located a little outside the town towards Chianciano and it's three of them. We had to make a reservation with a museum guide to visit. Visits are organized by small groups. During the week prior to my official visit to Chiusi for the event, I also visited the Etruscan Museum in Perugia and the Ipogeo dei Volumni in Ponte San Giovanni (Perugia). What was neat about my visits is that I got to talk to the museum janitors. What they all want is more visitors to their places. Museum janitors in Italy may be fine archaeologists, this is also what I found out upon my visits. The ones I talked to are in love with their studies and would like the museums for which they work to receive more visitors.

Cetona is the second C town I visited. I wish to go to Cetona again to visit the Etruscan tomb that is part of a private estate. The area is open to the public a few days a year in August/September. Therefore this is a new appointment for next year. In the meantime, I have accepted the invitation to join a yoga class in Cetona. A special host welcomed me in Cetona the day of my visit and she is a yoga teacher. We had a glass of white wine together sitting outside the local coffee shop and then I headed home for lunch. In Cetona I felt like being in the main piazza in Siena. In fact, the town belongs to the province of Siena. What a great feeling!

So now I have two C towns left to visit: Città della Pieve for its new Etruscan findings and Cortona for its Etruscan Museum. I hope to be back with more news about my Cake for Cama event soon. Thank you for following my journey. It's fun to be in touch. With much fondness, Roberta

"Cake Stands for Cama" is a series of short blog posts
regarding all things I like starting with 'C' like 'Cama'.
I have also thought of adding towns to my favorites list.

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Inspiration Comes When...

One of the landscapes I will be traveling through upon my event on Saturday, November 14th called CAKE IS FOR CAMA

I can feel that moment when I get inspired to write my blog posts. Writing posts is not easy at all. It has to do with something true that is being expressed at the right moment. For me being true comes from establishing enthusiastic connections with friends sharing the same interests and love for something I am experiencing. When that enthusiasm gets to the point of creating something together, that's the best of all. It turns my experience into something beautiful to share with others. That's where the best inspiration comes from.

Additionally while thinking of my posts I have to be careful not to be flattering or try to make other people happy. It does not work. Everything to me in order to work has to be authentic. That's one of the reasons it has taken me so long to get where I have arrived upon my journey with Cama. It all depends on the connections I am establishing upon my revival journey.

I am now busy dedicating time to a follow up to my first traveling event that I have created inspired by the C of Cama. This is something my armchair friends in the world who are in love with Italy will enjoy. If they wish they can participate in the event by interacting with me through questions and feedback about the places I am visiting. Indeed this upcoming Saturday I will be traveling to five different places near where I live whose towns' names start with C like CAMA. Despite this appointment has still being to come, I am already envisioning a follow up to my first traveling event.  The thought of it is boosting my energy.

What's more, is that the action of traveling is very meaningful to me. Basically, I am transferring into reality something I have done in these past years through an ideal journey with Italian Renaissance Art. In this blog, I mostly describe Italian Renaissance Art curiosities and things I like.

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"C is For City"

There are a few small towns in central Italy whose names start with 'C'. I have always thought it would be fun to establish a connection with them. I would start with Cortona, the most visited town by Americans in Italy. It is a very nice place for shopping. Then I would select Città della Pieve which is interesting as a stage and then Chiusi which is easy to reach by train and is a strategic place for a meetup as an example. I have always known Chiusi for its train station in fact. However, I have discovered Chiusi a few weeks ago for its professional ballet school I didn't know of. There is also an archaeological museum that I have planned to visit. Cortona, Città della Pieve and Chiusi are all at hand from where I live and in a small area including three different provinces and two regions: Umbria and Tuscany. I am discovering this area with you as I moved here a few years ago. Italy is like a continent in miniature. You are never done with exploring it. Don't you agree?

"Cake Stands for Cama" is a series of short blog posts
regarding all things I like starting with 'C' like 'Cama'.
I have also thought of adding towns to my favorites list.

Follow me on Twitter and Facebook to receive updates!

www.facebook.com/friendsofcama

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'C' For 'CHERRIES'

Fede Galizia (Italian late Renaissance woman artist 1578-1630), Silver compote with cherries and a butterfly, oil on panel, private collection

In Italian we have a tasty tanslation of 'one thing leads to another'. We say 'one cherry leads to another'. The reason for reinventing the word 'thing' for this saying is that in Italian the word thing translates COSA. On its turn the Italian word for CHERRY, ciliegia starts with 'C' and that's where the substitution comes from.

I noticed this interesting curiosity by translating this Italian saying into English. I could not find such an involvement of cherries in English like we do in Italian. So I did a little research. I found out that German and French adopted the Italian saying's literal translation:  'Eine Kirsche zieht die andere' for German and 'Une cerise tire l'autre' in French. Other languages in Europe translated the original Italian saying literally: 'One cherry leads to another', which is so true for cherries. I can't wait for cherries to be back in season. I love cherries!

*****************

This is my second edition  of short  stories entitled "Cake Stands for Cama": stories about my favorites starting with the letter "C".  

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POMO: Pomodoro, Pomo d'Adamo, Pomarancio!

An orange tree, a symbol of nobility. It was named at one time
Pomarancio. 

The Italian word 'pomo' is usually an affix to words such as 'Pomodoro' (tomato) and is in use in expressions such as 'pomo d'Adamo' (Adam's apple).

'Pomo' describes fruits that are round and our first thought goes out to apples. That's true for the expression 'pomo d'Adamo' (Adam's apple), which commonly describes the prominent part of a man's throat. According to popular tradition, it's Adam's throat's point where an apple's piece got stuck while committing his sin.

Regarding our common knowledge of the apple as being the original sin's fruit, I recently read that Adam and Eve's apple of discord was most surely a pomegranate instead. Indeed it is said that the pomegranate is the most ancient fruit that we know of in the world.

Additionally, a pomegranate's etymology is an apple with seeds (from Latin: malum granatum) and it makes more sense it was a pomegranate. It's interesting to notice how English kept the original affix 'pomo' for pomegranate. Also, the pomegranate is the symbol of fertility and much in use in the renaissance time for wishing fertility to married couples and for describing plenty.

Of all Italian words, 'Pomodoro' (tomato) is such a beautiful word. It literally means 'golden round fruit'. Finding tomatoes in America for the first time must have been a great discovery.
Tomatoes are definitely an essential addition to tasty Italian recipes. What would be the world without a tomato sauce for the perfect pasta dish or a pizza without a delicious fresh tomato sauce on top of it?

Another beautiful word including 'pomo' is Pomarancio. 'Pomarancio' is the name of a famous Italian Renaissance artist who was born in the small town of Pomarance in the province of Pisa. The locality name Pomarance comes from the fact that once in this area they grew orange trees. Therefore the word 'Pomarancio' means orange fruit tree. The affix 'pomo' adds much fascination to this word, too. Pomo stresses the image of the orange as a round-shaped fruit. Like we all know, beauty has much to do with round-shaped things.

Niccolò Circignani (1530-1599) known as Pomarancio, Music Concert, circa 1594,
Palazzo della Corgna, Città della Pieve, Italy 

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A visit to the Galleria Nazionale dell'Umbria on a very hot summer day

Entrance door to the GALLERIA NAZIONALE DELL'UMBRIA, 
Perugia, Italy 

I am writing this post as I promised one of my best Facebook friends I would write a dedicated post about my recent visit to the Galleria Nazionale dell'Umbria. In this blog post, I would have explained a concept I had originally written in Umbrian dialect on Facebook. Indeed my friend commented that the explanation for the picture at Galleria Nazionale dell'Umbria I had posted didn't get translated. The reason for disabling an automated translation is that I wrote in Umbrian dialect indeed. Dialects are codes that in Italy belong to family and friends only. That's why dialects are not listed on international translators. They are like handy communication short-cuts.

I also write in Umbrian dialect as part of my Facebook friends are Italian and I feel like using dialect in Italy makes people come closer to each other. This said I am going to try and 'translate' what I originally wrote in Umbrian dialect, namely Perugino dialect. In general, the most difficult part is translating idiomatic expressions and play-on-words from dialect to any other language but I will try to do my best. 

Benedetto Bonfigli, Angels offering roses, 1466,
Galleria Nazionale dell'Umbria, Perugia, Italy

In my Facebook dialect post, I meant to say that last Sunday I would have met friends at the Galleria Nazionale dell'Umbria downtown Perugia. 

On the first Sunday of the month admission to the Italian public museums are free and we had a mission to accomplish. Therefore we thought of free admission as an invitation to accomplish our goal. Then I added that if beauty will save the world, it is most important to cultivate beauty. I also said that I don't mind at all nourishing beauty. I used an Italian idiomatic expression that goes: buttarsi a peso morto, which means 'to fling oneself into something'. However, in Italian peso translates 'weight' and the idiomatic expression 'buttarsi a peso morto' visually communicates the image of someone investing all his/her body weight into something. Right now I am a little overweight, therefore the play-on-word was that by being pretty heavy, my flinging myself into beauty would be a more efficient contribution thanks to my weight indeed. 

Giovan Battista Caporali, Saint Jerome's altarpiece, 1510-1515
Galleria Nazionale dell'Umbria, Perugia, Italy

I have no idea if this explanation would make sense to an English speaking reader. I do not even know if I was the only Italian who enjoyed reading my post by making some self-irony. Therefore I continued my post by saying that because I used all my body weight to fling myself into cultivating beauty, there is no way I could benefit from this action of mine. One of the immediate benefits is that I can refine my body's inside, which is in my mind and soul. As a second step, I will be able to refine the outside which means losing weight. However, I wrote I can do one thing at a time only. Therefore for the second refinement, there is still some time to go. I hope I will still be on time to recover my ideal weight. Finally, I apologized to beauty if I was too much of a burden on her, still referring to my weight. The irony won't save the world, however, it helps feel much lighter! 

This is not the end of the story. I will write a new post describing the reason why we visited the Galleria Nazionale dell'Umbria last Sunday. What our mission was. It's a story that for the time being I have shared only with my new Facebook friend who has just become our new contributor to the Friends of Cama page on Facebook.  She is very knowledgeable and passionate about art. Follow our page and share it with friends. Help us keep beauty alive!

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Friends of Cama: the intangible heritage of a much loved Italian ceramic workshop

Translation of the article published by L'Italo-Americano on August 18th, 2014 available online in the original Italian edition: 

DERUTA talking coat of arms with the castle (Deruta)
and the Gryphon (Perugia) protecting the city. On top of the
tower a plant of rue, the herb of grace, a symbol of
good luck 

The history of the brand name “Cama” has its roots in Deruta, the most important ceramic production city in Italy. It is also linked to California and to most areas of the United States by a common thread. 

The name “Friends of Cama” was originally created by a group of American customers from the Bay Area, who in 2010 came together to raise a “crowdfunding” in order to save the ceramic factory from imminent closure.  They wanted their favourite artisan workshop to stay in business as for 30 years they had become collectors, and closure meant they would not be able to acquire any more genuine Cama pieces.  

This sincere initiative for the workshop, visited by many people, was “Cama” which is an acronym for Cooperativa Artigiana Majoliche Artistiche (Majolica Artistic Handicraft Cooperative), founded in the fifties specializing in hand-painted Renaissance dinner services.

It is thanks to the artist Elena Niccacci that the classical Deruta patterns reached their perfection, a quality much appreciated by her American customers. Elena’s style became a fashion statement on the dinner tables in many American homes, also in Starbuck’s cookery book entitled “Passion for Coffee” and in films (“Mrs Doubtfire, 1993).

In 2010 Elena Niccacci celebrated 60 years in the world of ceramics, as well as being the first woman entrepreneur to revive the Deruta classical patterns.  As a young girl, she believed passionately in her work, at a time when the art of pottery was reserved for the elite.

During difficult times for Cama, a bridge was created between the US and Italy but it needed more time and resources in order to envisage new horizons.  Reopening the workshop as it had been operating before was unprofitable and attempts to merge with another factory in Deruta were in vain.

Therefore the members of Friends of Cama began to take on a supportive role in the company’s transition and innovation. Starting from a common sharing and a great relationship with Cama’s customers, the daughter Roberta Niccacci took over the intangible heritage of the company in the search for new paths.  So far it has taken five years.  A challenge that has changed Roberta’s life.

“It has been a journey that I never imagined to do.  As each door closed I went forward.  I learnt not to give up;  to fight and to stay focused.  I became very strong because having a vision makes you resilient” said Roberta Niccacci.  “It’s like living a dream.  And I want this dream to come true.  I’m ready to celebrate with my many friends all over the world starting from the United States.  Thank you to all the friends and customers of Cama, and the people unknown to me, for supporting me in an impossible mission – never attempted in Deruta before.”

In Deruta Roberta was the face of Cama;  she took care of the clients with considerable talent together with her brother Andrea, who supports the project to make Cama revive in an original way. With the help of her Italian mentor, who believed in her potentialities, Roberta has moved from sales assistant to innovator.

Roberta Niccacci writes about her journey on the Cama Facebook page www.facebook.com/FriendsofCama and on the blog www.friendsofcama.blogspot.it.

Overcoming the vicissitudes in Italy, where she experimented, researched new methods, knocked on doors;  this year Roberta finally visited the Friends of Cama in the Bay Area returning to San Francisco after twenty years.  She has never forgotten her love for the city and her long-standing friendships.

Now Roberta’s project is ready to take the plunge, possibly with an American business partner, and make her dream come true:  to revive Cama and once again serve the loyal customers who patronized her family’s workshop. 

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